Sumber : http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1660446
Supporter cuts off finger to support India opposition.
Posted on 10 January 2016 - 04:13pm
NEW DELHI: A businessman cut off one of his fingers as a gesture of thanks to the gods after India's opposition leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi were granted bail in a court case, a report said Sunday.
Induvalu Suresh, 35, hacked off his little finger last month before wrapping it in a rupee note and dropping it in a Hindu temple donation box in the country's south, according to the Times of India.
The owner of a granite business, from Ramanagara near the southern city of Bangalore, said he had vowed to make the unusual gesture of gratitude if the mother-son duo of the famed Gandhi dynasty were given bail.
"I wrapped the finger in a 1,000 rupee (US$15, RM66.34) note with a letter thanking God for granting bail to Sonia and Rahul and dropped it in the hundi (donation pot)," Suresh told the newspaper.
"I did not feel the pain when I cut my finger. Later, I went to the hospital adjacent to the temple and told the doctor that I lost my finger while repairing the AC compressor of my car," he said.
The Gandhis, leaders of the Congress party which was crushed in the 2014 general election, were summoned to court last month over allegations they misused funds of a newspaper once run by the family.
The pair were given bail in the case brought by a politician from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The paper was launched by India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and closed in 2008. Sonia Gandhi, widow of Nehru's grandson Rajiv, later became the chief patron of the trust that ran the publication.
A Congress lawmaker has reportedly thanked Suresh for the finger sacrifice but stressed the party was not keen on "sycophancy of pain".
The Gandhis still have legions of loyal supporters despite their party's drubbing in the polls by the BJP.
The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has provided three prime ministers and its Congress party has dominated Indian politics since independence. – AFP
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Saturday, January 2, 2016
No jeans in Hindu temples
Sumber : http://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional/2016/01/02/jean-wearing-devotees-barred-from-hindu-temples/
NEW DELHI (AFP): Hindu temples in southern India began turning away devotees wearing western clothes Friday after a court order banning jeans and shorts as “inappropriate” for spiritual worship came into effect.
In December the Madras High Court ordered temple authorities in Tamil Nadu state to refuse entry to anyone wearing jeans, bermuda shorts, skirts, short-sleeves or tight leggings to “enhance spiritual ambiance."
Hundreds of staff members in the coastal state’s 6,000 temples, ranging from small shrines to major religious sites, remained on alert Friday for people flouting the ban, which came into force on Jan 1.
“We have enforced the court order from today. A few people were politely turned back for not wearing the prescribed dress,” a superintendent at the Arulmigu Ramanatha Swami Temple in Rameswaram district told AFP, asking not to be named.
The dress code applies to both locals and foreigners visiting the temples, some of which are major tourist attractions.
Arulmigu Ramanatha Swami temple alone receives more than four million visitors each year, the official said.
Men are allowed to wear dhoti -- a traditional long lower garment -- or pyjamas with a cloth top or formal pants and shirts, while women are allowed to wear sarees or half sarees with a blouse.
“We should dress for public worship in a way that is generally considered appropriate,” the court said in the order.
Several Hindu temples and other religious sites in India restrict devotees from entering the premises on pretext of dress, eating habits -- some do not allow non-vegetarians to enter -- as well gender.
In Mumbai a women’s rights group is fighting a legal battle to overturn a four-year ban on entry of women to Haji Ali Dargah, a Muslim shrine, where menstruation was cited as the reason for the restriction.
While in urban centres such as New Delhi and Mumbai many people, especially men, wear western clothes, in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala traditional garments are more popular.
NEW DELHI (AFP): Hindu temples in southern India began turning away devotees wearing western clothes Friday after a court order banning jeans and shorts as “inappropriate” for spiritual worship came into effect.
In December the Madras High Court ordered temple authorities in Tamil Nadu state to refuse entry to anyone wearing jeans, bermuda shorts, skirts, short-sleeves or tight leggings to “enhance spiritual ambiance."
Hundreds of staff members in the coastal state’s 6,000 temples, ranging from small shrines to major religious sites, remained on alert Friday for people flouting the ban, which came into force on Jan 1.
“We have enforced the court order from today. A few people were politely turned back for not wearing the prescribed dress,” a superintendent at the Arulmigu Ramanatha Swami Temple in Rameswaram district told AFP, asking not to be named.
The dress code applies to both locals and foreigners visiting the temples, some of which are major tourist attractions.
Arulmigu Ramanatha Swami temple alone receives more than four million visitors each year, the official said.
Men are allowed to wear dhoti -- a traditional long lower garment -- or pyjamas with a cloth top or formal pants and shirts, while women are allowed to wear sarees or half sarees with a blouse.
“We should dress for public worship in a way that is generally considered appropriate,” the court said in the order.
Several Hindu temples and other religious sites in India restrict devotees from entering the premises on pretext of dress, eating habits -- some do not allow non-vegetarians to enter -- as well gender.
In Mumbai a women’s rights group is fighting a legal battle to overturn a four-year ban on entry of women to Haji Ali Dargah, a Muslim shrine, where menstruation was cited as the reason for the restriction.
While in urban centres such as New Delhi and Mumbai many people, especially men, wear western clothes, in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala traditional garments are more popular.
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